Common terns in the archipelago

Checking out the Common tern colony

Common terns are one of my favorite subjects during the summer months here in Sweden. They are an agile and graceful flier and a photo subject that is really hard to work with.

This Thursday I drove to the Common tern colony in the archipelago to check the status and to see if there were new life in the colony. I have pondering about this for some time, but this week was my first visit too the colony this season.

I also pondered about checking my Osprey dam from last year as I had seen reports of a White-winged tern from that area. Now I didn´t do it this time, but I will surely check that area soon.

When I arrived at the Common tern, and Black-headed gull, colony I saw that they had moved it slightly further out on the rocks this year. I took up my seat at the water’s edge trying not to disturbed the colony and once I got seated they relaxed. This clearly told me that no eggs have hatched yet as that would have meant I had to use my bag hide to disappear from the watchful eyes of the birds.

The evening wasn´t action packed, but I got lucky to record an acrobatic display between to Common terns, you can find those pictures in the gallery, so I didn´t stay for long as the main objective was to check the status on the colony.

Common Tern 140522

This is one of the pictures I came home with from the Common tern colony.

I prefer not to have the sky as a background when I photo Common terns as I mostly find those pictures to be dull and not to my liking. Still you have to take the opportunities you get as when I got the acrobatic display between two Common terns that you will see in the gallery below.

I personally want a little color in my picture and in this I have used the green foliage from a rock that isn´t used by the colony. I think colors complement the Common tern nicely as you see in this picture.

I hope you find my pictures from this year’s first outing with the Common tern colony to be to your liking. I will publish more material during the weeks to come when I revisit the colony, but for now this gallery will have to do.